Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but it's a gritty drama now

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Father Ted as a depressed and frustrated priest, living with a sex offender and a mentally disabled boy. Sad piano music in the trailer as Ted glimpses Mary leaving her shop with a poorly disguised black eye. Tears well in his eyes as he pleads, "The money was just resting in my account!" while his skin is bleached to oblivion by the flashbulbs of the ravenous press. A terrorist bomb hidden in a milk float kills Dougal in season three. Bishop Brennan develops arse cancer.

This has got definitely got some legs. Get Lenny Abrahamson on board to direct and just call it Ted.

Awards by the bucketload.

[mjwilson]

The failure of the show based off a Twitter account will hopefully mean they are scared off this.

Zola (the movie) was based off a Twitter thread and is pretty good by all accounts.

[thecuriousorange]

A bleak Roseanne where the tough, outspoken matriarch becomes a Trump supporter and makes misjudged race jokes.

[Blue Jam]

A bleak Roseanne where the tough, outspoken matriarch becomes a Trump supporter and makes misjudged race jokes.

Heh. How about another Mr. Show reboot but this time the tall one becomes an actual terrorist?

[George White]

There was a Mary Tyler Moore TV movie, Mary and Rhoda in the early 00s that basicallly revived the series as a mawkish light drama, with only MTM and Valerie Harper, and none of the other cast even referenced bar their mothers.
Then again, it already spawned a drama with Lou Grant.

[Alberon]

So sitcoms can spawn dramas. Can dramas give rise to sitcoms?

[Bad Ambassador]

Pardon the Expression with Arthur Lowe was spun off from Coronation Street.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Billy Liar got turned into an ITV sitcom as well.

[mothman]

If I remember correctly, they tried trimming episodes of Ally McBeal into half-hour more-sitcom-like episodes called Ally. The consequences were far from hilarious.

I kept seeing this thread and assumed it was something that had meant to go in HS Art. But I've just watched that Bel-Air full trailer open-mouthed. I was wondering if they were going to leave the reason why Will moves from Philadelphia as some great mystery to be explored over the course of the series, but no it's right there in the trailer.

[dissolute ocelot]

The Lone Gunmen was sort of a comedy spin-off from the X Files, and I seem to recall that Grange Hill spin-off Tucker's Luck was largely a comedy. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a comedy reinvention of a superhero cartoon adventure. And of course Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Here's a list of every spin-off ever.

[The Mollusk]

Threads - bawdy, slapstick fun with a family making good after the bomb has dropped.

This would be especially great if it was completely inverted - the one minuscule glimmer of a chuckle in "Threads" is where the soldier is disgusted when realising the bag of crisps he's found is prawn cocktail flavour, but in the comedy remake it causes him to kill himself out of despair.

[George White]

The light drama Shillingbury Tales spawned sitcom Cuffy.
The Nesbitts are Coming - ITV sitcom spinoff from Z Cars - guest characters recast and spunoff.
The Brothers McGregor - like the above but with Coronation STreet - Eddie Yeats' Scouse pals
Beverly Hills Buntz from Hill St Blues